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shining with the rays of your divine divinity. For you are great in compassion, we in sins; you dwell in unapproachable light, but we are all darkness; (265) you are outside creation and we are in creation. But most of us are outside creation in their perception, being completely insensible and, being contrary to nature, are outside of all things, who, looking, do not see, and seeing, do not perceive, nor are they able to comprehend the wonders of God in their noetic perception, but they are outside the world, or rather in the world they are as dead and before death and before their departure they are held in the lowest hades. These then are truly those of whom the scripture speaks, the glorious, the rich, the venerable to all, who also seem to be something of this sort, being altogether unable to perceive their own shame; for even if they possess the wisdom of the world in themselves, and glory as a garment, having built up vain conceit like a tent with deceived minds, and having put on the one and dwelling in the other, they sit as if at the bottom of the lowest hades and are ignorant of God, ignorant of the world and all the works of the creator in the world. For who will know the creator before he sees creation with reason as a rational being, with the nous noetically, and contemplating it noetically with noetic perception? But who? He who sees spiritually through the Divine Spirit, mystically illumined, and guided at the same time, might somehow ascend dimly to the knowledge of the maker. For thus being purified he will be deemed worthy to receive clearer knowledge, as all scripture says. But the passionate, as I said, those wearing senselessness as a garment, clothed in conceit as in glory (266) take pleasure and laugh at others and play in the shadows in the manner of puppies. If you throw a nut and it makes a noise as it rolls, they jump on it, seize it, gape at it and roll with it and leap about together; and if someone drags the string of a whip before their feet they twist and fall and stretch their feet into the air and become a cause of laughter to the men who see them, to all, because of their fall. Thus, then, these also senselessly delight demons in their own actions and characters likewise; such men, then, tell me as I ask, as you are able, how will they relate the mysteries of God to others? And how will they be enlightened at all by the light of knowledge and impart it to others, or pronounce a straight judgment with true discernment justly,

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ἐλλάμπων τῆς θεότητος ἀκτῖσι σου τῆς θείας. Σύ γάρ πολύς ἐν οἰκτιρμοῖς, ἡμεῖς ἐν ἁμαρτίαις˙ σύ φῶς οἰκεῖς ἀπρόσιτον, σκότος ἡμεῖς δέ πάντες˙ (265) σύ ἔξω εἶ τῆς κτίσεως καί ἡμεῖς ἐν τῇ κτίσει. Οἱ πλείους δέ τῶν ἐξ ἡμῶν καί τῆς κτίσεως ἔξω ἐν τῇ αἰσθήσει πέλουσιν ὅλως ἀναισθητοῦντες καί παρά φύσιν ὄντες δέ ἔξω εἰσίν τῶν πάντων, οἵ βέποντες οὐ βλέπουσιν, ὁρῶντες οὐχ ὁρῶσιν οὐδέ Θεοῦ θαυμάσια ἐν νοερᾷ αἰοσθήσει καταλαβεῖν ἰσχύουσιν, ἀλλ᾿ εἰσί ἔξω κόσμου, μᾶλλον δ᾿ ἐν κόσμῳ ὡς νεκροί εἰσί καί πρό θανάτου καί πρό ἐξόδου κάτοχοι ἐν ᾅδῃ κατωτάτῳ. Οὗτοι οὖν ὄντως πέλουσιν, οὕς ἡ γραφή γε λέγει, οἱ ἔνδοξοι, οἱ πλούσιοι, οἱ σοβαροί τοῖς πᾶσιν, οἱ καί δοκοῦντες εἶναί τι ἐκ τῶν τοιούτων ὅλως, μή συνιδεῖν ἰσχύοντες τήν ἑαυτῶν αἰσχύνην˙ κἄν γάρ σοφίαν κέκτηνται ἐν ἑαυτοῖς τοῦ κόσμου, δόξαν τε ὡς ἱμάτιον, οἴησιν τήν ματαίαν ὥσπερ σκηνήν δομήσαντες φρεσί πεπλανημέναις καί τήν μέν ἐνδυσάμενοι, τήν δέ ἐγκατοικοῦντες, ὡς ἐν πυθμένι κάθηνται ἐν ᾅδου κατωτάτου καί ἀγνοοῦσι τόν Θεόν, ἀγνοοῦσι τόν κόσμον καί τά ἐν κόσμῳ ἅπαντα ποιήματα τοῦ κτίστου. Τίς γάρ τόν κτίστην γνώσεται, πρίν ἤ τήν κτίσιν ἴδοι ἐν λόγῳ οἷα λογικός, ἐν νοΐ νοερῶς δέ, καί ἐν αἰσθήσει νοερᾷ νοερῶς κατοπτεύων; Τίς δέ; ὁ καθορῶν πνευματικῶς διά Πνεύματος Θείου μυστικῶς ἐλλαμπόμενος, ὁδηγούμενος θ᾿ ἅμα, πρός γνῶσιν τήν τοῦ ποιητοῦ ἀμυδρῶς πως ἀνέλθοι. Οὕτω γάρ καθαιρόμενος τρανοτέραν τήν γνῶσιν λαβεῖν ἀξιωθήσεται, ὡς γραφή πᾶσα λέγει. Οἱ ἐμπαθεῖς, ὡς ἔφην δέ, ἀπόνοιαν ἐκεῖνοι φοροῦντες ὡς ἱμάτιον, τήν οἴησιν ὡς δόξαν (266) ἐνδεδυμένοι τέρπονται καί γελῶσι τούς ἄλλους καί παίζουσιν ἐν ταῖς σκιαῖς τόν τῶν σκυλάκων τρόπον. Κάρυον εἰ προσρίψειας καί κροτήσειε τρέχον, ἐπιπηδῶσι, δράσσονται, περιχαίνουσι τοῦτο καί σύν αὐτῷ κυλίονται καί συσκιρτῶσιν ἅμα˙ κἄν φραγελλίου σύρῃ τις πρό ποδῶν τό σχοινίον συστρέφονται καί πίπτουσι καί πόδας εἰς ἀέρα ἐκτείνουσι καί πρόξενοι γέλωτος τοῖς ὁρῶσιν ἀνθρώποις ἐπί τῇ αὐτῶν γίνονται πτώσει πᾶσιν. Οὕτως οὖν καί οὗτοι δαίμονας τέρπουσιν ἀναισθήτως ἐν ταῖς οἰκείαις πράξεσι καί ἤθεσιν ὡσαύτως˙ οἱ γοῦν τοιοῦτοι, λέγε μοι ἐρωτῶντι, ὡς ἔχεις, πῶς τά Θεοῦ μυστήρια διηγήσονται ἄλλοις; Πῶς δέ τό φῶς τῆς γνώσεως φωτισθῶσι κἄν ὅλως καί ἄλλοις μεταδώσουσιν, εἴτε κρίσιν εὐθεῖαν ἐν διακρίσει ἀληθεῖ ἐξάξουσι δικαίως,